A Crew without a Captain
by KikiDiki
Summary: Captain Malcolm Reynolds is dead. What's the crew of Serenity to do.


A Crew without a Captain  
  
By KikiDiki  
  
Disclaimer: The ingeniousness that is Firefly belongs to ME and Fox.  
  
Summary: One of the most beloved crewmembers of the Serenity dies. This is the crew's reactions. Mainly from Kaylee's POV. No real pairings.  
  
Please Read and Review!!  
  
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She pulled herself into a ball and pulled the covers over her head.  
  
The last few days were kind of a blur or at least she wished they were.  
  
Music played on her stereo. She reached out from her shell long enough to turn up the music. It was to the point were she could no longer hear her thoughts and she liked it that way.  
  
The tears had stopped streaming down her face. Her eyes and nose were all puffy and red from wiping against her long sleeves and the mountain of tissues collecting on the floor.  
  
She felt better, moving from the initial shock and devastation to a nice sort of nonexistence.  
  
The second hand slowly ticked passed the hour hand.  
  
She blinked, she breathed, and life seemed to stand still without hope. For the first time, Kaylee Frye was without hope. Her faith and naivety in people was gone. She watched it tick away just like the meaningless time on the clock.  
  
Meaningless. It was all meaningless. Even the word "meaningless" seemed without meaning. She broke the word down and sounded out each syllable and letter. What a weird word. She smiled an empty smile.  
  
Her mind numb to fact that Malcolm Reynolds was dead. Her captain. Captain Tightpants. He hated it when she called him that. With that she began laughing, but that soon turned the tears. She tried her blink them away to hold them back. Anytime she remembered something happy about him it brought the tears. She knew that she shouldn't, but she couldn't help it. She could only see the good times and future jokes they would never share. She knew she should appreciate the time and memories given to her, but she could only see what was taken from her and the crew.  
  
Captain's body, burned beyond recognition, lay buried down in the ground of Serenity valley with the other Independents.  
  
Book had led a beautiful service with pretty words from the Bible, knowing that he never would be able to tell Malcolm about how a preacher knows so gorram much.  
  
Simon, not having known the man as long a time as the rest of the crew, had thanked Malcolm for taking River and him in and keeping her safe.  
  
River had spoken her usual gibberish, "The Fellowship is broken. Eight are here yet nine there were set out from Persephone. Tell me, where is Malcolm Reynolds? He has fallen into shadow."  
  
Zoe had told some war stories; her face calm and reserved as she tried to be strong for everybody.  
  
Wash hadn't been his normally chatty self; he had stood there by his wife silently listening; his eyes betraying his inner pain.  
  
Inara had wept tears, angry at Malcolm for dying and at herself for not telling him of her love. She wept for all the 'what if's and 'what could have been's.  
  
Jayne, eyes red and watery, had spoken strangely moving sentiments about how much he'd looked up to the man.  
  
Kaylee hadn't help matters. Rather than fill the atmosphere with her usual cheer, she had broke all their spirits with her hysterical cries. She hadn't been able to breathe. He was there lying in the ground. She hadn't wanted to leave him there by himself.  
  
As if to mock our pain, the sun had gleamed brightly down upon us and the headstone.  
  
Sgt. Malcolm Reynolds 2491-2517 Take my love, take my land Take my where I cannot stand I don't care, I'm still free You can't take the sky from me Take me out to the black Tell my mom I ain't coming back Burn the land and boil the see You can't take the sky from me  
  
  
  
All she could do now was watch time pass as the leaderless crew was torn apart. There was tension and distance. Guilt and Blame. The silence was suffocating. Suffocating. Like her captain must be, down there in the earth.  
  
Kaylee Frye filled her time watching time pass, but occasionally would wander down the halls. Down the halls of Serenity. Seeking serenity.  
  
As the Zoe made her self the new captain and took any job she could get to fill her time and sorrow, Wash became increasingly brooding and withdrawn. The rest if the crew rarely saw him anymore.  
  
Inara took the other road. She began making appointments and not keeping them. Until she just stopped making appointments altogether. She spent most of her time lighting candles for Malcolm and praying with Book.  
  
Jayne on the other hand drowned his sorrows in liquor and late night visits to Kaylee's room.  
  
Simon looked after River like always and spent increased time working on the cure so that he wouldn't have to be around all the sadness and depression. Nobody really wanted to be around anybody. Everything and everyone was a reminder, but nobody dared leave. Nobody would allow Serenity to no keep flying.  
  
River, blissfully happy, doesn't seem remember that he's dead. She wanders the ship reminding everyone she will find him one day. As if he was just hiding behind some corner of the ship.  
  
"They weren't a crew without their captain. They were waiting to be but they forgot. Now they see him and they remember what they are."  
  
So Kaylee watches that clock, waiting for those few seconds when she has the hope that he will return to them.  
  
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Viva la Firefly Immediate Resistance! Long live Firefly! May it fly forever!  
  
Author's Note: May make plans to continue with Captain still being alive or perhaps a crossover with Farscape and the worm holes to bring him back, but for now it's a stand alone fic. 


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